Portland protests Aug. 17: What you need to know

We don't want them.The Democrats are the founders of the KKK after the Civil War. Last KKK member(we know of) in Congress was Robert Byrd who died in 2010. Not that long ago. Both Clintons and Biden gave eulogies of their good friend.

 

I agree with ProudLib's conclusions -- 'terror' ought to mean more than beating people up. It should mean intentional lethal violence.

And as someone else said, that has mainly come from the racist far Right since the Weathermen and allied groups folded or got caught, and recently from deranged individuals, mainly but not exclusively with racist white supremacist views but not acting on behalf of any organization. Even that crazy guy who attacked the ICE center in Tacoma was not carrying out an Anti-Fa assignment.

I think we should keep definitions tight if we can, and perhaps make up new words or phrases if we need them.

Language is a weapon in the political war and we don't want to be like the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf, when and if Anti-Fa (or, more likely, an impatient faction within them) move to real terrorism.

 

That doesn't sound like terror, it sounds like a reasonable precaution to take when a bunch of hotheads want to meet up where your business is at. It's not Antifa, per se, that's got these businesses concerned. It's the volatile mix of Antifa AND their arch-rivals. I get the point that the business are concerned enough to close their doors, though. That does suggest we have a problem on our hands with these groups.

By trying to shoehorn these groups to fit a pre-conceived definition, you're doing what AOC is doing with her rhetoric. Antifa is a (very incompetent) terrorist organization? OK, who funds them? What's their core ideology? Who's their leader? How are they organized? Do they have cells in various places? How do they communicate with these cells? Are they state-sponsored? What's their strategy for bringing about their political goals? What attacks have they carried out? How committed are their followers? How are they recruiting new members? Where do they conduct their training? What kind of weapons do they use? With terrorist groups like Al Queda and ISIS, we can answer those questions. With Antifa? Not nearly so much.

Isn't Antifa's supposed goal to prevent fascism from getting a toe-hold here? Given our history of losing lots of guys fighting fascism, shouldn't we be hyper-vigilant about it, and stamp it out whenever it shows it's ugly head? Antifa is going about it all wrong, of course, but if their goal is really to crush fascism, shouldn't that be applauded? WW2 wasn't THAT long ago. Again, I don't think you could even get a coherent definition of fascism out of a typical Antifa member. They probably don't even know who Mussolini was. These are just young guys who want to fight (which was probably the genesis of every terrorist group ever- young guys looking for a reason to fight). Maybe it morphs into something else down the road. Right now, they don't rise above the concern of LEO's. Nobody at the federal level is taking these groups seriously. Yet. If really bad **** goes down this weekend, I'll be eating these words, but I predict nobody's going to get killed.

I couldn't tell you. I don't know all that much about Antifa. If they're as violent as you're intimating, they probably would have killed someone by now. What have they accomplished over the years, by way of violence, except sending some people to the hospital?

They are fighting fascism? Great. Are they themselves fascist? If so, tell me, who's their leader? What are their plans for gaining political power? What do they want to do with that power?

Yes, which is concerning. In practice though, they obviously don't believe that, else they would be much more violent than they currently are. Which comes back to my point that these guys aren't really that serious about anything.

OK, so where's all this violence taking place? Why haven't they been labeled a terrorist organization?

Are you actually afraid of these guys?

 

Why do these "protests" keep happening in Democrat run cities----

 

End Domestic Terrorism = We Are Bringing Domestic Terrorism to your City

Any other obvious questions?

 

Probably for the same reason that Trump never hold rallies in Deep Blue States.

 

"The rally is being organized by a member of the Proud Boys, who have been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Others expected include members of the American Guard, the Three Percenters, the Oathkeepers and the Daily Stormers. American Guard is a white nationalist group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, while the Three Percenters and the Oathkeepers are extremist anti-government militias. The Daily Stormers are neo-Nazis, according to the center."
https://nypost.com/2019/08/13/portland-braces-for-another-far-right-rally-antifa-counterprotest/

And people are rooting AGAINST Antifa? I'd rather be on the side of anti-fascism than white nationalism.

 

AntiFa is a logical development of the 'Leftward' movement -- I have to put quotes around this because this is not your Grandfather's Left -- ask me how I know -- of the ... 'unhappy-with-America' group. I would have used the phrase 'the Left' in the past but various liberals and centrists here have finally convinced me that its way too broad.

Anyway -- AntiFa is the off-campus version of the screaming mobs of students, mainly at our elite campuses, who shut down conservative speakers and even physically attack them. This is a relatively new development. In the 1970s, an eminent scientist named E.O. Wilson, wrote a book called Sociobiology: the New Synthesis. It made the case for biological roots to much of our behavior. A hard-line communist group called the Progressive Labor Party organized an attack on him, because he contradicted the communist view of human beings, which is that we are 'blank slates' when we are born who can be molded into perfect human beings by a sufficiently strong state.

This view, in a softer form, underlies the whole political viewpoint of the left, including liberalism, but generally -- in the past -- liberals didn't attack you physically for not agreeing with it. Liberals had a principled committment to free speech and rational discussion -- in fact, historically, a much better one than the Right had. That has been changing fairly rapidly. Now 'identity politics' is spreading rapidly throughout this social layer, and they react strongly -- violently often -- when the legitimacy of their identity is challenged.

Any sensible person will stay away today.

 

Lol... funny stuff right here.

 

What's funny?

 

The ridiculousness you wrote.

 

We will see what the Cops are really made of.

Any violence will only happen if the Cops lose control of the situation.

 

Hhmm, Proud Boys, are not that holy of a group. Antifa is not either, but you certainly tipped your hand. Nothing has happened yet, seems like you are expecting it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys
....
In January 2019, Reggie Axtell, a member of the Proud Boys, threatened Ted Wheeler, Portland, Oregon's Democratic mayor, in a Facebook video post. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Axtell said in the video that Wheeler's "days are ****ing numbered ... I promise you this, Ted Wheeler: I’m coming for you, you little punk." Axtell also said that he would "unmask every [anti-fascist] son of a bitch that I come across", referring to a campaign initiated by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, Proud Boy Tusitala "Tiny" Toese and former Proud Boy Russell Schultz to tear off the bandanas of anti-fascist (antifa) demonstrators and taking pictures of their faces, thereby "demasking" them.

 

So?

You are already anticipating the Cops losing control of the situation?

And, a Major Incident (with arrests and casualties)?

You see no possibility (whatsoever) of the Cops keeping things "under control" (save for a few minor, isolated, incidents)?

 

What was ridiculous?

 

So why is there no riots, no killing in Portland today?

 

Cops doing a good job of keeping the sides separated.

 

Sounds like that whole ridiculous "narrative" was just more of the same RW "Chicken Little/The Sky is Falling" BS.

Looks like a Big Nothingburger.

 

Watching a live update from MSNBC now...

Antifa guy being interviewed wearing his bicycle helmet.... looking REAL dangerous...

Sounds noisy though...

Not a hot day though... that might bring out more people... Predicted high of only 78... sounds like heaven to most of US...

 

Repubs are on the edge of their seats looking for a reason to cry..

 

Even if nothing happens the president and the repubs will use it as propaganda to demand instituting the classification of terrorism because they are different.

 

No kidding.

The RWs Hearts Will Be Broken if there are no Major Incidents (that they can whine about on Social Media).

At this point the only hope that the RW has, is if they can bribe some fellow RWs to infiltrate the crowd on the other side (to orchestrate a False Flag).

 

Looks like somebody busted under the bridge.... and some group is loosely marching over a bridge...

Lotta bridges in Portland..